The Body of Christ: The Eucharistic Congress and the fraternity it provides

The theme for the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress in Ecuador last month was “Fraternity to heal the World”. The gathering promises showed fraternity in action, with an extraordinary assembly of peoples of every nation, age, language and ethnicity, all united in shared devotion to the Eucharist: to the body and blood of Christ which we receive in Holy Communion. It was a moving expression of the Mystical Body of which we are all a part.

The Eucharist that Christ shared with the apostles is the one that we now share with each other. And in the sacrament, we eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood. This is a statement so familiar as to seem trite; a formula that the mind does not absorb because we have talked about it so glibly and so often. We must shock ourselves into realising the enormity of the Eucharist.

As the late, distinguished Dominican Herbert McCabe pointed out in a sermon, “The Eucharist is also the sacrament of the human body of Christ. The Word by which God’s love is made present amongst us is not in the first place words, but a human being of flesh and blood, not an idea about God, but the enacted life-story of Jesus of Nazareth. When we say God’s Word expresses our unity in the Spirit in the Eucharist, we mean that language used for our love for each other is no longer just human words of bread and wine, but the divine Word-made-flesh, the real body and blood of Christ. This is the difference between Catholic teaching and the idea that bread and wine are human symbols expressing what Christ does for us. Catholics say that this cannot be expressed except in God’s language; it can only be spoken by God’s speaking his Word, the bodily reality of Jesus.”

So, our fraternity in the Eucharist is not just that we sit together as brothers and sisters at a symbolic meal. While there may be symbolism, it is not just a symbol; while there are words, there is also the Word of God. Bread and wine are food and drink; but they become Christ’s body, which is why we approach them with reverence: we are one body because we share in one bread. If we are not baffled and confounded by the mystery in those words, it is because we have anaesthetised ourselves to what they imply. If the Eucharistic Congresses can make us think again about the nature of this mystery that makes us brothers and sisters, they will do a great service; the next will take place in Sydney in 2028.

This article appeared in the September 2024 edition of the Catholic Herald. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click HERE.

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